In praise of ignorance
Many people are so anxious about their ignorance that they miss the joy of the present moment. They fear that they might miss a terrific opportunity to become rich, get promoted, or purchase an exotic masterpiece. It seems that they assume they should’ve known everything around.
While ignorance could sometimes bring disasters if we were mindless, it can also bring bliss.
It is acceptable or even necessary for us to be ignorant. One of the reasons we cannot escape ignorance is that we are incapable of processing all the information, whether signals or noises. We have to filter the noises and retain valuable knowledge. The reduction inevitably makes us blind to some details of the reality.
Sometimes we have no attempts to filter the information. We are still unsure about its accuracy and precision because our sense might be wrong or our measuring instruments are inaccurate. This limitation results in an involuntary reduction irrespective of our intentions.
Another reason why we should accept ignorance is that we would not be able to proceed if we kept all the details in mind. When a driver drives on an unfamiliar road, it is at least not necessary, if not dangerous, for him to know every detail of the road. An updated map is sufficient. He might get distracted by the additional information and put himself and others in danger.
My personal experience tells me that if I place all the rules and grammar in mind, I cannot write anything because the restrictions handicap me. I have to be mindful of a few principles, such as using simple words and active verbs and ignoring others so that I can complete my first draft. This way allows me to tweak my writings to satisfaction. My approach is like a driver keeping alert to his blind spots and temporarily ignoring the traffic conditions two miles away while making his left turns.
My justification for ignorance does not devalue the merits of knowledge or wisdom. On the contrary, I view seeking knowledge and understanding as one of the highest virtues for human beings. My point is that we must forgive our ignorance of some insignificant details for deciding and acting.
We should accept that we cannot obtain and know all the information that pumps up and flows around us. The information we choose to ignore should be ideally inconsequential. Otherwise, we are likely to pay a heavy price for negligence.
Sometimes, we do not know if our omits were consequential or not until we have tried. In that case, we have to be cautious about every step we take to avoid the risk of ruin. For example, when we explore an unknown and uninhabitable land, we should not assume it is as safe as our neighborhood. When we are in similar situations, the unawareness of our ignorance is more dangerous than the ignorance itself. The reason is that we are likely to be overoptimistic should we be unaware of our ignorance. It is not surprising that a gambler would not stop playing the game when he had lost almost all his money: he was in the hope of winning back even if his chance was negligible.
Accepting ignorance is not an excuse to be folly; it is only an attitude to help us make progress in solving our problems. This attitude helps us maintain peace of mind and stay clam when we face unexpected challenges. When we are inclined to accuses others or ourselves for ignorance, we must remember that even a witty and erudite person can be ignorant because reality is fast changing and too complex for us to wholly absorb.
Perhaps the best we can do is be humble, embrace our ignorance and learn from it.